Best Humbucker Pickups For $200, Heavy string gauge, Low B tuning, lead guitar Options

[Jim S.]

I have a gift card to musicians friend and figured my Ibanez S Prestige should get some new pups but I have made some changes in my setup that bring on a few questions.

Since I've raised to 68 to 12 strings and lowered the tuning to B standard, the "g" or d string sound odd and muddy but the outer strings sound great. I like playing the bigger strings. So are there pickups designed for low tuning?

I like playing chunky prog rhythm to clean strummy chords and lead guitar clean and high gain.

The tremolo is very stable and stays tuned.

I have an 18v livewire's in my strat and I think they sound a bit bright but I'd be willing to make the mod to my ibanez if the humbuckers were toned down a bit.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks guys/gals!

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[Darius Wave]

In my honest opinion guitar setup for low tuning should be exactly opposite to what we consider is good. For example:

1. If You are playing low tunings You already have some extra lows. You need a bright guitar and bright pickups to compensate the treble loss.

2. You want to play very heavy - Try to use medium output, very bright pickups that will make the tone of high gain amp much more crunchy and clear.

My experience says that the more output is from the pickup, the more muddy tone gets. If you add a not so bright alder, basswood or poplar (very popular in Ibanez guitars) You will gey even more muddy tone. If You don't want to change the guitar then maybe try to taste a pickiup that will compensate the loss of high frequency. I would really go for SH4 / TB4 from Seymour Duncan..

I did many experiments and those are one of my top pickups if You want to "un-muddy" Your guitar

Of course this is all very subjective

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[NPB1979]

I have a gift card to musicians friend and figured my Ibanez S Prestige should get some new pups but I have made some changes in my setup that bring on a few questions.

Since I've raised to 68 to 12 strings and lowered the tuning to B standard, the "g" or d string sound odd and muddy but the outer strings sound great. I like playing the bigger strings. So are there pickups designed for low tuning?

it depends how muddy you wanna get.

I've wound 9k neck, 11k bridge with 43 awg and they've sounded good in an Epi SG that had drop tuning and thicker strings.

Like Darius said, Low tunings is low, so brightening up the guitar is what I'd want to do, the higher the k the (arguably) higher the output, but the less highs you'll get.

POTS
To supplement high end loss when using passive pickups, you swap the volume control for a higher value like a 1 or 2 meg vol pot instead of the standard 250k or 500k. Using this measurement explains why strats have 250k pots because the single coils are already pretty bright on their own.

There is a company in Detroit that makes super high gain passive pickups if you want to check them out. They are not cheap.
http://motorcitypickups.com/

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This post has been edited by NPB1979: Feb 21 2014, 03:31 PM

[Jim S.]

it depends how muddy you wanna get.

I've wound 9k neck, 11k bridge with 43 awg and they've sounded good in an Epi SG that had drop tuning and thicker strings.

Like Darius said, Low tunings is low, so brightening up the guitar is what I'd want to do, the higher the k the (arguably) higher the output, but the less highs you'll get.

POTS
To supplement high end loss when using passive pickups, you swap the volume control for a higher value like a 1 or 2 meg vol pot instead of the standard 250k or 500k. Using this measurement explains why strats have 250k pots because the single coils are already pretty bright on their own.

There is a company in Detroit that makes super high gain passive pickups if you want to check them out. They are not cheap.
http://motorcitypickups.com/


Thanks guys it seems I have bought my pickups before these suggestions came through and am finding that muddy sound Darius talks about : (

However on the bright side I am learning about pickups. Ended up with alnico v active pickups and haven't fully installed them correctly. On the very brief test drive at 3:30am I noticed that power chord style playing very muddy but clean and single note lead very clear. Tuning is Bb standard with 64-13 string gauge.

I'm gonna try and solve some of my issues with jemsite, hopefully they can help me out. Thanks regarding the pots, I'm gonna look into it.

The new pups came with 100k pots but the original were 500k. Don't no if I should keep old ones or not.

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[klasaine]

I'd put in a 500k volume pot.

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[Darius Wave]

I would go for 500K as well

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[Jim S.]

I would go for 500K as well

Seems I should have kept in my old ones, I will put them back in when I figure out the rest of the wiring of the switch.

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[NPB1979]

For active pickups (ones that need a 9v) I think 500k pots would be too noisy. EMGs for example, the instructions say only use 25k pots. Why shouldn't you use a 500k pot for active pickups? They want to take advantage of the better noise immunity of lower impedance circuits.

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This post has been edited by NPB1979: Feb 24 2014, 02:38 PM

[Darius Wave]

Yes we forgot that important detail Active have much smaller coils so don't need as big resistance of pot. But seems like I got confused...we should go back to the pot value once You decide about what pickups You will purchase

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[Todd Simpson]

This pretty much covers it Fine suggestions there. You may try a duncan alternative 8 if you want a medium gain alnico 8 pickup. I've got one in my gunslinger and it's my fave duncan.

In my honest opinion guitar setup for low tuning should be exactly opposite to what we consider is good. For example:

1. If You are playing low tunings You already have some extra lows. You need a bright guitar and bright pickups to compensate the treble loss.

2. You want to play very heavy - Try to use medium output, very bright pickups that will make the tone of high gain amp much more crunchy and clear.

My experience says that the more output is from the pickup, the more muddy tone gets. If you add a not so bright alder, basswood or poplar (very popular in Ibanez guitars) You will gey even more muddy tone. If You don't want to change the guitar then maybe try to taste a pickiup that will compensate the loss of high frequency. I would really go for SH4 / TB4 from Seymour Duncan..

I did many experiments and those are one of my top pickups if You want to "un-muddy" Your guitar

Of course this is all very subjective

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[Jim S.]

This pretty much covers it Fine suggestions there. You may try a duncan alternative 8 if you want a medium gain alnico 8 pickup. I've got one in my gunslinger and it's my fave duncan.

Yup I already bought and installed Active Dave Mustaine livewires. I am waiting for jemsite to help with some wiring issues with the switch and in installed the supplied 100k pots. I wondered about 25k pots, seems a lot of people talk about them.

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[klasaine]

Sorry, my bad.
I didn't get the part about 'active'. 25k to 100k seems to be what everybody talks about.

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